Endgame for ETA: Elusive Peace in the Basque Country

Hardcover | July 15, 2014

The violent Basque separatist group ETA took shape in Franco's Spain, yet claimed the majority of its victims under democracy. For most Spaniards it became an aberration, a criminal and terrorist band whose persistence defied explanation. Others, mainly Basques (but only some Basques)understood ETA as the violent expression of a political conflict that remained the unfinished business of Spain's transition to democracy. Such differences hindered efforts to "defeat" ETA's terrorism on the one hand and "resolve the Basque conflict" on the other for more than three decades.Endgame for ETA offers a compelling account of the long path to ETA's declaration of a definitive end to its armed activity in October 2011. Its political surrogates remain as part of a resurgence of regional nationalism - in the Basque Country as in Catalonia - that is but one element of multiplecrises confronting Spain. The Basque case has been cited as an example of the perils of "talking to terrorists".Drawing on extensive field research, Teresa Whitfield argues that while negotiations did not prosper, a form of "virtual peacemaking" was an essential complement to robust police action and social condemnation. Together they helped to bring ETA's violence to an end and return its grievances to thechannels of normal politics.

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The violent Basque separatist group ETA took shape in Franco's Spain, yet claimed the majority of its victims under democracy. For most Spaniards it became an aberration, a criminal and terrorist band whose persistence defied explanation. Others, mainly Basques (but only some Basques)understood ETA as the violent expression of a politi...

Teresa Whitfield is a fellow of New York University's Center on International Cooperation. She is the author of Paying the Price: Ignacio Ellacuria and the Murdered Jesuits of El Salvador and Friends Indeed? The UN, Groups of Friends and the Resolution of Conflict.

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Table of Contents

AcknowledgementsGlossary of Individuals and OrganisationsTimelineIntroductionHow can this be?Why the Basques?Terrorism, conflict and the Basque case1. The Basque problem and ETAIn EuskadiThe shadow of violenceThe emergence of Basque nationalismCivil War and FrancoETA takes shapeA contested transition2. Violence, terror and talkingContacts and killingThe Socialists and the GALETA and its worldThe Conversations in AlgiersTurning point3. Aznar, counter-terrorism and Estella-LizarraPursuing the defeat of ETAVictims and the peace movementFrom Northern Ireland to Estella-LizarraThe ceasefire and beyondAznar's offensive and 9/114. The Basque crisis: looking for a way outBeyond impasseThe Ibarretxe planThe great tabooOutsiders venture in5. Zapatero's momentA second transition?Towards AnoetaGreen light and broken bridgesIn Geneva and Oslo6. The ceasefire unravelsThe shadow of Northern IrelandOff to a shaky startFailure to launchThe political trackOslo, Barajas and bustLimping forward7. AftermathPost mortemTerror and counter-terror, againBatasuna digs inInternational dimensions8. Leaving violence behindZutik (Stand up) Euskal HerriaInching forwardsHesitation and resistanceHave we all gone mad?Crossing the Rubicon9. Virtual peacemakingWinners and losersTowards endgameETA and its prisonersAieteThe definitive end to armed activity10. Unfinished businessRajoy's Spain, and ETAThe prisoners as touchstoneCoexistence and el relatoConclusion: What can we learn from the Basque case?The long road to peaceEndgame and its lessonsNotesSelected BibliographyIndex